


The Dare

by Abbie



Series: Sleeping With A Friend [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, Bisexual Character, Kissing, M/M, No Undertaking, No island, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 20:12:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2201565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbie/pseuds/Abbie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy's game if Oliver is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RosieTwiggs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTwiggs/gifts).



> This moment is mentioned in Out of Curiosity, in my Sleeping With a Friend series.

It happened at a relatively small gathering. It was someone’s house party, and there were maybe thirty or forty people there. But in a home of that size and grandeur, anything less than fifty people spread through the sprawling rooms the party had unfurled in felt like an intimate affair.

Tommy was pretty sure Oliver even knew four or five of these people, which meant Tommy could remember the names and maybe the faces of three. He didn’t bother committing more of them than that to memory; he was only in New York for a week for this visit. But there was alcohol, there was music, there were attractive strangers, and there was Oliver.

The rest didn’t matter.

Of course, maybe if Tommy’d been paying attention, he’d have actually heard the game of Truth, Dare, Shot start—not that it would have stopped him, necessarily, from participating.

"Truth," a girl called Analise chose, smirking.

The guy who’d challenged her, Brock or Brad or Billy, maybe, grinned like he’d won something. “Was it you who stole Headmaster Trunchbull’s wig and put it on the statue of the Colonel with a lime green bra?”

Tommy blinked. School antics? He squinted at the other players involved, then glanced at Oliver, who who looked amused but disinterested. Were Tommy and Oliver the only ones here legal to drink?

Of course there was also the possibility that most of these people had just been in high school together. Maybe even they’d been to one of the same academies as Oliver. It’s not like Tommy would know.

Analise, still smirking, sipped from a tumbler of scotch. “They investigated very thoroughly, Benjie, and they ruled me out, remember? So obviously not.”

Someone pushed through the small crowd in the sitting room, a thin, reedy guy with a wide mouth spread in a triumphant smile, and pointed accusingly. “Calling bullshit, Analise! I was the one who made you the key copy, ha!”

Half the gathering crowed and Tommy chuckled along, Oliver grinning where he sat against the arm of a brown leather couch, his beer dangling between his knees. Tommy shook his head at the tangle of raised voices and sidled over to Oliver, bumping his shoulder with his elbow as he took a pull off his own beer.

Oliver snorted and gave him a wry sidelong glance.

"Alright, alright!" Analise called. "Fine! It was me. Jesus, I got away with it for  _five_ years, Dennis, way to ruin it.”

Analise didn’t look too put out to have her secret revealed, however, and Dennis didn’t look especially chastised either.

Benjie strode towards Analise, holding out a shot glass full of something bright green. “You know the penalty for lying, Sturmgard!”

Sighing exaggeratedly, Analise took the shot and tipped it back in a fast gulp, shaking her head with a grimace. The group cheered, but Analise raised her voice and quickly brought them back to a dull roar.

"My turn!" She turned in a slow circle, fingers tapping her chin as she surveyed her potential victims and smiled like a cat in a room full of drunk mice.

Surprisingly, her eyes dragged across Tommy and Oliver, swung back, and she stopped, lips parting in a grin. “You.”

Tommy pulled his beer from his lips, eyebrows high, and blinked at Analise’s pointed finger. At his shoulder, Oliver was clapping and laughing.

"Me?"

Analise nodded, still pointing at him. “You, cute stranger. Tommy, right?” He nodded warily. She smiled wider. “Truth or dare, Tommy?”

Tommy stared at her, not quite believing he was being singled out by what was possibly a bunch of Oliver’s old school acquaintances. These were not people he felt like giving any of his truths—not one.

Oliver chuckled at Tommy’s dumbfounded expression, and Tommy turned to glare at him. Rolling his eyes at Oliver’s unrepentant eyebrow waggle, Tommy turned back to Analise, who stood with her hands on her hips. He heaved an aggrieved sigh and answered, “Dare.”

He wasn’t afraid of being ridiculous among strangers.

Analise, however, had something else in mind with her cat-ate-canary grin. Lifting her index finger again, she pointed at Tommy, then at Oliver. “Kiss him.”

Half the crowd went silent, the other half howling a cacophony of “ooh”s and unworthy commentary. Tommy held Analise’s confident gaze, and blinked.

"You want me to kiss  _Oliver_?”

He glanced at Oliver, whose mouth was scrunched sideways and one eyebrow raised high as he, too, stared at Analise. “Wow, really?”

Tommy returned his attention to his challenger, and she nodded once. “Yup. You’re hot, Queen’s hot, and I bet you two look hot kissing each other.” She spun her finger in a little circle, nodding her head at Oliver. “Kiss him or drink.”

Someone in the back of the room called, “Take the absinthe, bro!”

Tommy rolled his eyes, turned towards his left to set his beer on the coffee table behind him, then turned back to Oliver, eyebrows high and smirk wry.

Oliver’s own brows climbed slowly as he and Tommy regarded each other.

Someone behind them crowed, “Ow! Get it, Queen!”

Oliver broke into a grin and ducked his chin, head shaking as he laughed.

Smiling himself, Tommy stepped closer. “Whaddaya say, man? Wanna play spot-the-homophobics?” He waggled his eyebrows, but his heart was pounding and his palms went oddly clammy. “Is your masculinity secure enough to handle kissing your best friend?”

Oliver chuckled. “Not worried about your own masculinity, Tommy?”

Tommy snorted and made an exaggerated face of derision. “Pfft, no. There’s not a man alive who could kiss my  _very_ secure manliness away.”

Analise called out, “Today, boys!”

Tommy tossed her a wink over his shoulder and stepped into Oliver’s space. Giving Oliver a moment to back out, Tommy held his eyes and raised a brow in question. Oliver just lifted his chin and smirked.

Taking Oliver’s face in his hands, Tommy leaned forward and smacked a loud kiss on his lips, pulling quickly back and throwing his fist in the air to various cheers and groans.

Analise, however, was not amused. “You  _know_ that was not the dare, Mister! Either kiss the man like he deserves or take the shot!”

Oliver threw his head back in laughter, reaching out and gently shoving Tommy’s shoulder. “Yeah, Tommy, kiss me like I  _deserve_! What am I, a nun?” He playfully buffed his nails on the sleeve of his long-sleeved tee shirt. “That playground crap don’t rev these engines.”

Tommy raised his eyebrows at Oliver’s teasing, then glanced slyly at Analise. “Oh,  _pardon me_. Like you  _deserve,_ then.”

And then, before he could talk himself out of it, he swung back around and caught Oliver by the back of the neck—briefly enjoying the genuinely startled look in his eyes—and reeled him in, crashing his mouth against his best friend’s with intent.

Tommy moved his lips over Oliver’s, a thrill of surprise running through him when Oliver responded—and playfully nipped his upper lip. Tommy sucked in a sharp breath, then pressed closer, licking along the seam of Oliver’s mouth and tasting the beer on Oliver’s tongue when he gained access.

The kiss went on for what seemed like ages, no points of contact but Tommy’s hand on the nape of Oliver’s neck and their mouths, sliding and sipping.

Remembering their audience with a jolt, Tommy snapped back with a gasp, standing straight and dropping his hands to his sides. Oliver was staring at him with a look Tommy couldn’t read—something like shrewd speculation and cautious curiosity.

He didn’t realize the room had gone silent until Analise howled a cheer, and several others joined her in applause and laughter

Compulsively licking his lips—and silently thankful that Oliver has shaved before they’d headed out tonight—Tommy discreetly adjusted his pants in the hopes that his unexpected arousal wouldn’t be incredibly obvious. He broke his gaze away from Oliver’s to turn and smile at the crowd, hands raised.

"Alright, you’ve had your fun! My turn!" Feeling a little manic, Tommy swung his finger around and pointed at Dennis. "You! Truth or dare?"

Dennis startled at being singled out, and cringing, blurted, “Dare?”

Next to him, Benjie edged exaggeratedly away, hands up and palms out. “ _Don’t_ tell him to kiss anybody!” Pinning the thinner man with a pointed stare, he said, “Dude, if he tells you to kiss somebody, you take the damn shot!”

Dennis, to his credit, rolled his eyes and ignored Benjie.

Grinning, Tommy did the same. He clapped his hands loudly and rubbed the palms together. “Dare it is. Strip and go jump in the pool! Buck-ass naked, Dennis my man.”

A girl who’d sidled up by Analise protested, “It’s like forty degrees outside!”

"I can do it!" Dennis retorted, defensive. Reaching back for his collar, he jerked his sweater over his head and treated the room to a view of his narrow, pale chest. "Watch me."

And then he tore out of the room, hands on his belt buckle, heading for the back door. Laughing and shrieking, the crowd followed him.

Tommy and Oliver remained in the sitting room, and feeling suddenly nervous and awkward, Tommy turned to him. “So. That was interesting.”

A small, odd smile on his lips, Oliver nodded slowly. “Interesting is definitely a word for it.” He shook his head. “Sorry, buddy. I didn’t realize the party was going to be almost entirely a St. Agatha crowd.”

Tommy shrugged. “One group of people I don’t know is as good as the next, Oliver.”

Oliver just shook his head. “You wanna get out of here? There’s this new bar I heard about on Ninth. And we’re supposed to pick Thea up later, do  _not_ let me forget, she’ll never stop whining about it.”

Tommy chuckled, something wound up tight in his chest easing at Oliver’s normal, casual manner. “Yeah, man. Let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate universe in which there is no Undertaking. Robert and Moira divorce when Oliver is a teenager, and Moira leaves Starling with Oliver and Thea to settle in New York. Tommy visits New York regularly, but in Starling, has developed another close friendship with Felicity Smoak.


End file.
